


Please Drink Responsibly

by Just_here_for_a_laugh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accidental Love Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Get together fic, Getting Together, Good Peter Pettigrew, In Vino Veritas, James Potter is a Good Friend, Kinda, Love Confessions, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), One Shot, Peter Pettigrew is a Good Friend, Sirius is impulsive, Truth Serum, Veritaserum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27680458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_here_for_a_laugh/pseuds/Just_here_for_a_laugh
Summary: When Sirius impulsively drinks veritaserum, two other Marauders have to keep him from spilling his feelings for a certain someone
Relationships: Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 24
Kudos: 402





	Please Drink Responsibly

Sirius heard a loud crash followed by a heavy grunt from James. Looking up from his drawing he saw his friend lifting a small cauldron out of the trunk at the foot of his bed. Curiosity getting the better of him, Sirius got up from where he had been laying on his own bed and went to investigate.

  
“What’re you doing there Prongs?” the boy asked skeptically. “Finally discover a potion to cover up the smell of your quidditch robes?”

  
“No,” James huffed a laugh as he once again picked up the cauldron to put it on his night stand, “been too busy trying to concoct something to cover up the smell of wet dog.” Sirius shoved him playfully and hopped up on the bed. James caught his breath before turning to his best friend and grinning. “It’s veritaserum.”

  
“What?” Sirius gaped. “Where did you get veritaserum?”

  
“I brewed it, genius.”

  
“Isn’t it super regulated by the Ministry?”

  
“What,” James smirked, “you mean like the details on how to become an animagus?” Sirius laughed and shook his head.  
“Fair enough.” He glanced at the cauldron. “What do you need veritaserum for anyway?” James’ eyes lit up and he opened his mouth but Sirius held up a hand to stop him. “Ah, I should have guessed. This has to do with another ridiculous plan to woo Evans doesn’t it?”

  
“Of course,” James beamed, never one to be discouraged. Sirius’ sigh was muddled by the chuckle he couldn’t suppress as he sat back and waited for his friend’s explanation. “A few weeks ago I was telling Lily how beautiful she is and how wonderful and how her voice rings like the prettiest bells heaven could design and how much I love her,” Sirius rolled his eyes and signalled for James to skip to the end. “And basically she said that even if she didn’t think I was a moronic prat that she wouldn’t believe me. So, I promised her I would prove that I meant every word.” Sirius raised an eyebrow and smirked.

  
“So now she’ll think you’re an honest moronic prat?”

  
“It’s not a perfect plan.”

  
Sirius laughed and jumped down off the bed to look into the cauldron over his friend’s shoulder. It looked like all the pictures he had ever seen of the potion, and he knew that James was great at potions when he bothered to put his mind to it, but all of that was circumstantial. “So,” he asked, “how do you know if it works?”

  
“Well the only way to test it without drinking it is to pour some of it onto the petals of a wild orchid and measure the color differential to see if it’s in the correct range to HEY-” James squawked as Sirius downed a handful of the potion. “What the hell are you doing?!”

  
“What?” Sirius grinned, “Now you don’t have to go traipsing through the Forbidden Forest to find an orchid and measure its light or whatever.”

  
“Pads! It could be totally wrong! It could be poisonous!”

  
“I trust you,” Sirius waved dismissively.

  
“I hope you trust everybody in Hogwarts, cause if it doesn’t kill you and it ends up working then you’re at the mercy of any question put to you for the next...who knows how long with how much you drank!” James pinched the bridge of his nose just under his glasses. “Oh, this is a disaster.”

  
“Relax, nobody knows that I drank it but you and me. No one’s gonna interrogate me if they don’t know there’s a reason to.”

  
“Just cause they won’t interrogate you doesn’t mean they won’t ask you something you don’t want to tell the full truth about.”

  
“Alright so I’ll skip class so Minnie doesn’t ask me if I did my essay, big deal. I’ll be fine Prongs, what’s the worst that could happen?” Sirius said nonchalantly. James raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

  
“I don’t know Pads, what _is _the worst that could happen?”__

  
“I could tell Moony I love him,” Sirius answered in the same nonchalant tone, before throwing his hands over his mouth as his eyes shot wide open. Both boys froze.

  
“Merlin,” James breathed into the silence, “it works!”

  
“What?” Sirius sputtered, “that’s what you took from that?! I just came out AND confessed my undying love for Remus and you’re focused on the potion?!”

  
“Sirius, love,” James grinned, “you’ve never exactly been one for subtlety.”

  
“You knew?” Sirius asked, stunned. James just answered with a warm smile. Sirius shook his head as he tried to clear it and his breathing sped up. “And you’re, you were, it didn’t-” he was cut off by James’ hands on his shoulders.

  
“Padfoot, I’ve known for ages and I haven’t cared once. I like girls and you like guys and those are just two facts, like that the grass is green and the giant squid splashes Flitwick every time he walks past. The first two are no more cause for alarm or reaction than the last two, and I’ll chug this swill and tell you exactly the same if you need me to,” James told him, gesturing to the cauldron. He chuckled pleasantly as his best friend’s glassy silver eyes looked up at him and held the other boy tight as Sirius pulled him into a hug. After a few moments Sirius’s breathing began to even out and he simply held onto his best friend, safe in the embrace. He sniffled slightly and murmured into James’ shoulder,

  
“You’re ruining my bad boy image.” James laughed and pat the other boy’s back as he leaned backward.

  
“There you are, you bloody git,” he grinned. “Now, let’s get back to figuring out how to keep you from spilling to Moony, shall we?”

  
“Please,” Sirius sighed, relieved to be moving away from the heavier aspect of this particular conversation. The two were discussing possible options when they heard a fumbling at the door. They looked up just as Peter walked in carrying an impossibly large and unorganized stack of papers with both arms, wand in his teeth and shutting the door with his foot. He glanced up at the pair and immediately took in their looks of relief and Sirius’ still somewhat flustered state. Dropping his papers on his bed and spitting out his wand he looked between them and asked,

  
“What? What’s wrong?” His two friends answered simultaneously.

  
“Nothing!”

  
“Truth serum.” Sirius gasped and then hung his head in defeat as James groaned beside him. Peter smirked.

  
“Ah,” he nodded as the worry fell from him and he pushed the stack of papers on his bed to the side far enough to sit down. “I see, worried you’ll slip and tell Moony how you feel? Alright, this shouldn’t be too hard to fix, we just need to think about what we’ve got to work with.”

  
“You too?” Sirius nearly shouted. Peter quickly glanced at James and then started laughing. Strangely, Sirius thought, it wasn’t a malicious laugh. It was almost a giggle, and James was joining in.

  
“Sorry mate,” Peter said with an easy grin, “it’s just not that hard to see.” Sirius couldn’t believe it. His friends had known he was bent this whole time, and they were okay with it. They didn’t seem to care at all! Here he was, attracted to boys, and what’s more attracted to their friend, sleeping in the same room with them and Remus, even in the same bed sometimes, and they didn’t care. They liked him anyway, loved him anyway. It almost didn’t compute. As he tried to wrap his mind around how they could have known and not changed their opinion of him, he had a horrifying thought.

  
“Oh Merlin, does Remus know?” he asked, panic clear in his voice. Both of his friends shook their heads.

  
“No,” James assured him, “luckily for you Remus is about as good at picking up on your clues as you are at hiding them.”

  
“Yeah,” Peter agreed, “and I don’t think anyone else in the school knows either. I mean we see it because we’re always around you, but I don’t think your average Gryffindor or Ravenclaw is going around whispering that you’ve got a crush on Moons.” Sirius relaxed a little, glad at least that it wasn’t obvious to absolutely everyone.

  
“Alright, well I’d like to keep it that way for right now so how do we make sure I don’t out myself to Moony or anybody else?” he asked.

  
“Hm, we could lock you in here until it wears off,” Peter suggested.

  
“Yeah, but that doesn’t take care of Remus,” James mused, “plus we don’t know how long it will take to wear off. He drank way more than you’re supposed to.”

  
“How much?”

  
“A handful,” Sirius answered instantly before cursing under his breath. Peter’s eyes went wide.

  
“I thought you were only supposed to take a few drops!”

  
“You are,” James replied in an unimpressed tone with a side eye shot towards Sirius. He sighed, “there’s no telling how long this will last. Could be days.”

  
“We can’t keep him away from Remus for days,” Peter worried. “He’d have to face him eventually.” Sirius groaned and flopped down on the bed.

  
“Is there any chance that drinking a handful will just kill me instead?” he lamented. James chuckled.

  
“Sorry Pads, I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as veritaserum poisoning.” Sirius buried his head in the pillow and let out a pitiful sound.

  
The three kept coming up with and rejecting plans to keep Sirius’ secret under lock and key, including locking him in a trunk and telling Dumbledore he’d been kidnapped by a hippogriff, actually trying to get a hippogriff to take him away, and knocking him unconscious with a broom every few hours until the potion wore off. They were essentially exactly where they had started when suddenly they heard the lock on the door unlatch. Remus walked into the dorm and tossed them a brief hello before putting his things down, completely oblivious to the frozen tension in the room.

  
“You would not believe the day I’ve had,” he said, walking over to his drawer and rummaging around in search of chocolate. “I wear this sweater right, my new one?”

  
“Yes,” Sirius piped up and the other two cringed slightly. Remus raised an eyebrow, finding it a little odd that his friend apparently hadn’t realized the question was rhetorical, but he shrugged it off and kept going.

  
“Right, so anyway, I was in the hall on my way to class when Udola Hillfax came up completely unprovoked and said I ought not to wear patterns because they make me look washed out. And I was just standing there gaping like a fish because I couldn’t think of how to respond to something like that, which made me look like a complete idiot, and then I had to sit through class thinking about it.” He huffed and took a bite of chocolate. “I mean, do you guys think I look washed out?” he mumbled through the candy in his mouth. James and Peter were quick to reassure him that the girl was wrong, but unfortunately their answers were overshadowed by Sirius’.

  
“You look perfect like always Moony.”

  
James and Peter didn’t move a muscle, and neither did Remus. He stared at his friend confounded. He searched his face for an indication of whether or not he was joking, but even though the potion had taken control of his voice Sirius was still in control of his own face and managed to keep completely neutral. With nothing to go on, Remus laughed awkwardly.

  
“Funny,” he said, unable to think of anything else.

  
“I mean it,” Sirius answered, and neither James nor Peter could tell if it was the potion talking or not. Remus shifted uncomfortably under Sirius’ gaze and James, bless him, decided to intervene.

  
“Hey, I heard one of the muggleborns in transfigurations say that band you like put out a new record! The Whats!” he chimed in. Remus chuckled.

  
“The Who. Yeah, I got it this morning, my mum sent it.”

  
“Let’s listen to it!” James suggested. Peter and Sirius nodded enthusiastically, realizing that if they were all listening to a record no one would ask Sirius any questions.

  
“Wish I could, but I promised I’d help out in the greenhouse.” Remus groaned. “Merlin, I don’t want to do this. I don’t even know why I agreed to go.”

  
“I’ll go,” Sirius said idly.

  
“Really?”

  
“Yes. I mean you had a rough day, so yeah sure I can go cover it.”

  
“You hate plants Padfoot,” Remus giggled.

  
“I don't _hate _them, I just don’t get why other people like them so much,” Sirius snorted in response. Remus grinned and eyed him skeptically.__

  
“You wouldn’t even cover James last week when he was supposed to lead Quidditch practice so he could finish his essay. And you’re on the team!” All four of them couldn’t help but laugh. Remus crosses his arms and raised an eyebrow with the same easy grin as before. “Why cover me but not James?”

  
“I’m not in love with James.”

  
The air in the room shifted instantly.

  
“What?” Remus breathed. Sirius started to repeat himself against his will when he was cut off by James lunging across the room and clasping both hands over his mouth. He and Peter both frantically tried to cover for Sirius, voices rushed and overlapping.

  
“Sirius was bodyswapped with a third year Hufflepuff!” Peter shouted.

  
“Snivellous hexed him and he’s gone mad!” James supplied.

  
“Mmmh hhm rrhmrr” came Sirius’ answer. Remus was frozen in place, eyes locked on the dark haired Black and expression incredulous. James sighed; it was obvious there was no undoing what had been done.

  
“Peter and I will go to the greenhouse, give you guys some time to talk.” The two Marauders left the dorm room and suddenly Sirius and Remus were alone.

  
They stared at each other for a moment before the confusion that had been bubbling up in Remus’ throat finally boiled over.

  
“I don’t- why would- that’s not,” he stammered. “I mean you don’t-“

  
“I do Remus,” Sirius interjected of his own accord. “How could I not? You’re so loving and gentle and so bloody gorgeous, how could anyone in their right mind not love you?”

  
“Sirius, you’re just saying that.”

  
“No, actually, I couldn’t say it,” Sirius laughed wryly.

  
“What do you mean?”

  
“I couldn’t ever get the nerve to say it before. I still didn’t really, it was the veritaserum that forced it out of me.”

  
“Veritaserum?” Remus gasped softly.

  
“Yes,” Sirius parroted automatically and then rolled his eyes. “I mean yeah. James snuck into the restricted section or something and made it to prove to Lily that he means all that rot he’s always saying, but he had to test it and he was going on about something to do with flowers or the woods or something so I just gulped a handful down cause I wasn’t really thinking about it but then it worked and we freaked out and then Peter came in and we were-!” He was cut off in muffled shock as Remus surged forward and kissed him. When he pulled back Sirius was finally rendered speechless for the first time that day. All he could do was watch Remus’ eyes sparkle as the young werewolf worried his bottom lip in a shy grin.

  
“You’re telling the truth,” he marveled, voice light and awestruck in a way Sirius had never heard it before.

  
“Every word,” Sirius breathed. “Always,” he swallowed, finding his voice. “I‘ve always meant it, whenever I told you you look good or that you’re funny or clever, I was just always too afraid to tell you the whole truth.”

  
“Then I guess we’re both guilty of the same lie of omission,” Remus blushed. He ducked his head down shyly but looked up at Sirius through long lashes, eyes and smile glimmering with hope. Sirius smiled in astonishment, and the expression only grew as Remus took his hand. “I’d like to try telling the full truth a little more?” he asked softly, hope and nervous excitement evident in his voice in a way that was so sweet it made Sirius want to melt.

  
“I couldn't agree more,” he whispered in the same tone. Then he chuckled, “I couldn’t disagree even if I tried.” The two giggled, quiet and giddy.

  


  


Three days later the Marauders were awoken by James shooting up in bed at 2am. “A dog!” he shouted. “We should have made him turn into Padfoot so he couldn’t talk!” The young wizard heard a combination of giggling and groaning before a pillow came flying at his head.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I would finally write one of my favorite tropes. Hope you enjoy! I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. Happy reading!


End file.
